3D Applications with PNG Support

Maintenance Note

The PNG-supporting applications and toolkits pages are no longer being
actively updated; for several years already, it's been safe to assume
that virtually any bitmap-capable image app supports PNG. Corrections are still
welcome, particularly for "repurposed domains" (park-spam), but
new applications are no longer being added.

3D applications, from real-time VRML to high-end modeling apps to ray-tracers,
are becoming increasingly popular, and textures are the usual means by which
PNG images are supported.

As with the other PNG-applications pages, links to home WWW sites or to
downloadable versions are provided where known, but if a link is broken,
check the location and see if an updated version is available (and
please tell Greg!).
Relevant operating systems are printed in (parenthesized italics).

These are listed alphabetically, more or less:

3D-XplorMath [Richard
Palais and Hermann Karcher] (Mac OS, Mac OS X) - version 10.0 and later;
write-only? freeware for non-commercial and academic use. (This is a
mathematical visualization and exploration tool ["museum"] that can
save visualizations in PNG format. It was originally called
3D-Filmstrip.)

3DSMax4 VRML exporter [blaxxun] (Win32) - version 4.4.1.0 and later; write-only?
freeware. (This is an "enhanced" VRML exporter for 3D Studio
MAX; it makes use of some of the VRML extensions supported by
blaxxun's VRML browser, Contact. PNG is one of the formats
supported for exporting textures.)

AP 3D Object Editor [Antti Pekonen]
(Win32) - version 1.02.11 and later; read/write; freeware
for non-commercial use. (This is a 3D modeler that can "save images to
PNG format" and, as of version 1.03.02, read PNG images as textures.)

ArchiCAD [Adobe]
(Win32) - version 8 and later; read/write; commercial.
(This is an architectural CAD program. It ships with another
PNG-supporting utility with read/write capability, PlotMaker,
which may or may not be related to the utility of the same name by
SailScience, listed on the converters page.)

Atmosphere [Adobe]
(Win32) - all versions; read/write; no transparency support (as
of build 67); commercial.
(This is a 3D builder/browser package with an associated multiuser
server ["community server"]. PNG is supported as a texture format, an
icon format, and as the output format for the browser's built-in
snapshot capability.)

Cafu Engine
[Carsten Fuchs
Software] (Win32, Linux/X) - all versions; read-only; freeware
(GPLv3) and commercial with C++ source. (This is an OpenGL-based 3D game
engine; PNG is supported as a texture format. It was previously known
as Ca3D-Engine before being re-released under the GPL in December
2009.)

Cn3D
[National Center for Biotechnology
Information] (Win32, Unix/X, Mac OS) - version 4.0(?) and
later; write-only; freeware with source. (This
is a 3D molecular-visualization application that "simultaneously
displays structure, sequence, and alignment, and now has powerful
annotation and alignment editing features." It can render directly to
PNG, either high-resolution or via screenshots.)

Contact
[blaxxun / Bitmanagement Software] (Win32)
- version 3.0 and later; read-only; alpha support; freeware with source (older version
only). (This is a VRML browser/plug-in. See the VRML browsers page for details. Contact was originally called
CC3D and CCpro. blaxxun became insolvent in mid-2002, and
development of Contact was taken over by Bitmanagement. Version 5.1 is
still available
from the original site.)

Cosmo Player [Paper Software /
Netscape /
SGI /
Cosmo Software /
Platinum Technology /
Computer Associates] (Windows 3.x,
Win32, Mac PPC) - all versions; read-only; alpha support;
freeware. (This is a VRML browser/plug-in. See the VRML browsers page for details. The Cosmo Player 1.0
betas were developed by SGI, but Cosmo Player 1.0 itself was basically a
lightly modified version of Netscape's Live3D, which in turn was based on Paper Software's
WebFX. Cosmo Player 2.0 was a complete rewrite by SGI, which
then spun off the VRML team to form Cosmo Software, which was later
acquired by Platinum [except for the Irix versions, above and below],
which was then acquired by Computer Associates. Ay carumba...This product is no longer under development, as such. It was
licensed by Nexternet and is now known as Pivoron Player; see
below.)

Cosmo Worlds [SGI /
Cosmo Software /
Platinum Technology /
Computer Associates] (Irix/X,
Win32) - all versions; read/write; full alpha support;
commercial. (This is/was a high-end VRML 2.0
modeler. Version 1.1 for Irix and version 2.0 for Win32 are reported to
support PNG textures perfectly. Note that SGI retained the rights to the Irix version, while the Windows
version was acquired by Platinum in mid-1998 and then by Computer
Associates in early 1999; the latter apparently is no longer available.
See also Cosmo Player above.)

Crystal Space
[Jorrit
Tyberghein and the Crystal Space Team]
(Unix/X, DOS, OS/2, Win32, BeOS, NeXTStep/OpenStep,
Rhapsody, Mac OS, Amiga) - version 0.10 and later; read-only;
MNG support (read-only) as of
version 0.96(?); uses libpng, zlib and optionally
libmng; freeware (LGPL) with source. (This is an open-source 3D
game engine written in C++ that compiles on multiple platforms; it also
includes a number of demo levels. PNG support was added by Andrew Zabolotny.)

DINO [Ansgar
Philippsen] (Unix/X) - version 0.8.0 and later; write-only;
freeware. (This is a scientific application for the visualization of
structural biology--molecular structures, electron densities, etc. PNG
is one of the supported 2D output formats.)

Extreme3D [Macromedia] (Win32, Macintosh) - version 2.0 and
later; read/write(?) for textures and backgrounds; write-only for
rendered scenes (with interlacing and alpha support); commercial. (This
is a 3D modeler/editor. Version 2.0 is part of FreeHand Graphics
Studio on the image editors page.)

Flamingo [Robert McNeel
and Associates] (Win32) - all versions;
read/write; commercial. (This is a radiosity and ray-tracing plug-in
for Rhinoceros, below. PNG is supported as an input format for
textures and as an output format for final, rendered images.)

Flounder
[Edward Vigmond]
(Unix/X) - all versions; write-only; requires libpng and
zlib; freeware with source. (This is a 4D data-visualization
program that can render isosurfaces, slices, etc. Images or image
sequences can be saved in PNG format.)

Font F/X [DCSi /
Electric Rain] (Win32)
- version 1.1 and later; write-only; commercial. (This is a 3D
font-rendering program that can export to various image formats.)

FontTwister [Alexander and
Matthias Neuber] (Win32) - all versions;
read/write; full alpha support claimed; shareware. (This is an app for
creating 3D text images. It supports reading PNGs as textures and
writing them as finished images.)

FreeWRL
[Tuomas J.
Lukka, John Stewart,
etc.] (Perl) - all versions; read-only; requires libpng
and zlib; freeware (LGPL) with source. (This is a VRML
browser/plug-in. See the VRML browsers page
for (out-of-date) details. Since FreeWRL is mostly written in Perl, it
has dependencies on a large number of Perl modules [Digest-MD5,
HTML-Parser, Image-Base, Image-Xpm, MIME-Base64, URI, libnet,
libwww-perl], as well as Mesa3D, FreeType, the aforementioned libpng and
zlib, and optionally JavaScript and Java.)

Gforge
[John Beale] (Unix, DOS)
- version 1.1f and later; write-only; freeware with source.
(This is a fractal terrain/surface generator that uses "random fractal
forgery" a la Richard F. Voss; its output can be used in POV-Ray
scenes. Xforge is the tcl/tk version. Gforge has been
superseded by HF-Lab below.)

HF-Lab
[John Beale] (Unix, DOS)
- version 0.84 and later; read/write; uses libpng and zlib;
freeware with source. (This is a "height field" generator, used to
create two-dimensional grayscale images that can be used as input to a
3D modeler--i.e., black corresponds to low-altitude terrain, white to
high-altitude terrain, etc. HF-Lab is based on Gforge above.)

Jun for Java
[AOKI Atsushi,
ODA Tomohiro, et al.]
(Java) - version 316 and later; read-only? requires JIMI
or JAI; freeware (GPL) with source. (This is an OpenGL-based
"graphic multimedia library with topology and geometry." There is
also a Smalltalk version, but it is unclear whether that version supports
PNG.)

OpenVRML / Lookat
[Chris Morley,
Braden McDaniel, and
others] (Unix/X,
Unix/Motif,
Unix/GTK,
Unix/Qt,
Win32,
Mac PPC)
- all versions; read-only; perfect alpha support; requires
libpng and zlib; freeware (GPL et al.) with source. (This
is a VRML library and several stand-alone VRML-browser front ends. See
the VRML browsers page for details. The
library [formerly known as LibVRML97] includes Lookat, a very
basic Xlib/OpenGL browser, but there are also separate Motif, GTK, Qt,
Windows, and Macintosh versions that are somewhat more user-friendly.)

Liquid Reality [DimensionX / Microsoft] (Java) - version
1.0b17; read-only; minimal transparency support; very unstable; freeware.
(This was a VRML browser/plug-in. See the VRML
browsers page for details. Liquid Reality was developed by
DimensionX, which was then acquired by Microsoft. The latter eventually
released a derivative product called Liquid Motion, which was
itself discontinued on 26 January 2000. Liquid Reality 1.0b17 was
the first and only version [beta] to support PNG.)

Live3D - see Cosmo Player above

LiveArt [Viewpoint
Digital] (Win32) - version 98 and later; write-only;
alpha support? commercial. (This is a "3D clipart" program, in a
sense; its 3D models can be rotated and manipulated in the usual manner,
but then it renders the models as if they were hand-drawn, and PNG is one
of the supported output formats. The technology originated at Thinkfish
["What do you put in a thinktank?"], which was acquired by Viewpoint
Datalabs, which is distinct from Viewpoint Digital but nevertheless
apparently related in some twisted manner.)

MathGL3d [Jens-Peer Kuska]
(Win32, Unix/X) - version 1.1 and later; read/write;
freeware. (This is an interactive viewer for Mathematica 3D
elements that supports saving the rendered images as PNG. As of version
2.0, it also supports reading PNG images as textures on Mathematica
objects and writing VRML 2.0 models and POV-Ray models with PNG
textures.)

MicroStation/J [Bentley
Systems] (Win32) - version 8.0(?) and later;
read/write? commercial. (This is a CAD program with 3D modeling support.
PNG is probably supported as a format for background images and possibly
for screenshots or "web export.")

Moonlight 3D Atelier [Stephane Rehel and Alexandre Belhoste]
(Linux/X) - version 0.9.2; read/write; freeware (2012k). (This
is a 3D modeler/raytracer that can read PNG images as textures and write
rendered images as PNGs. It is not clear whether 0.9.2 was the first
version to support PNG, but it was the last; development of this
product ended in 1999. However, an earlier open-source release,
version 0.5.3, was forked in January 2002 to become Moonlight|3D; it will be listed above when PNG support is
restored.)

MSVRML - see WorldView below

NatureView Express - see Visual Nature Studio and
World Construction Set below

Nendo [Nichimen
Graphics] (Solaris/X, Win32) - all versions;
read/write; commercial. (This is a low-cost and reportedly excellent
3D modeling and paint tool with support for several 2D and 3D formats,
including PNG and VRML 2.0.)

OpenGL::Image
[POGL Team / Graphcomp] (Perl) - all versions;
read/write; requires ImageMagick, libpng and zlib;
freeware (Artistic) with source. (This is an imaging component that can
load PNGs for use as OpenGL texture maps and frame-buffer objects and that can save OpenGL frames in PNG
format. It is part of the Perl OpenGL
[POGL] project.)

Pivoron Player [Nexternet] (Win32) - all versions; read-only; alpha support;
freeware. (This is a VRML browser/plug-in. Version 1.0 is essentially
identical to version 2.0 of Cosmo Player, which was the previous
name for the browser; see above for its extensive history.)

Poser [Fractal Design / MetaCreations / Curious Labs / e frontier AmericaSmith Micro Software]
(Win32, Mac PPC) - version 4.0(?) and later; read/write; fake
transparency support (white = transparent); commercial. (This is a 3D
application to pose and animate human and animal figures. At least as
of version 5, PNG is supported only as a format for texture, bump and
reflection maps, not as a format for exporting rendered images, but
this limitation no longer applies in version 7. [No word on version 6.]
Fractal Design was acquired by Metacreations between versions 2 and 3;
Poser was purchased by Curious Labs between versions 4 and 5; Curious
Labs was acquired by e frontier between versions 5 and 6; and Poser
apparently was purchased by Smith Micro after version 7, though as of
January 2008, neither site has been updated to reflect this.)

POV-Ray
[POV-Ray Team] (Unix, DOS, Macintosh, Amiga, OS/2, Win32)
- version 3.0 and later; read/write; full gamma support; partial, broken
alpha support (only for anti-aliasing, not transparent objects, and
premultiplied instead of non-premultiplied as required by PNG spec); up
to 16 bits per channel (i.e., 48-bit truecolor); uses libpng and
zlib; freeware with source. (This is one of the more famous
ray-tracers in existence.)

Quat
[Dirk Meyer]
(Unix/FLTK, Win32/FLTK) - all versions? read/write; requires
zlib; freeware (GPL) with C/C++ source. (This is a generator of
3D quaternionic fractals. PNG is its sole image format, and it
includes an independent C implementation of PNG-encoding/decoding
functions. Development appears to have ceased in late 2002.)

Rational Reducer [Systems in
Motion] (Win32, Linux/X, Irix/X) - version 2.0 and
later; read-only; commercial. (This is a polygon-reduction tool for
VRML and other 3D formats. PNG is supported as a texture format for
the models.)

Reachin API [ReachIn
Technologies] (Windows NT, Irix/X) - all versions; read/write;
alpha support (read/write but not display); commercial. (This is a 3D
API/toolkit for developing "multisensory"--at a minimum, visual and
haptic--3D applications. PNG is the "primary native graphics format."
It was formerly known as Magma.)

Rhinoceros [Robert McNeel
and Associates] (Win32) - version 1.1 and
later; read/write; commercial. (This is a NURBS-based 3D modeler.
PNG is supported as an input format for textures and as an output format
for the internal screen capture function. The related Flamingo
plug-in, above, adds support to Rhino 2.0 [and later] for saving
radiosity-based and ray-traced renderings in PNG format.)

Scene Express - see Visual Nature Studio and
World Construction Set below

Tachyon
[John Stone] (Unix,
BeOS, Mac OS X, Windows NT/2k) - version 0.93.2 and later;
read/write; uses libpng and zlib; freeware (BSD) with
source. (This is a ray-tracing library optimized for parallel and
multiprocessor configurations. It can render to PNGs and apparently
also read them for use as textures.)

Torch [Newfire] (Win32) - all versions; read-only;
dithered transparency support; freeware. (This was a VRML
browser/plug-in specifically designed for 3D games. See the VRML browsers page for details. Torch flamed out
when Newfire did [1999 or so].)

trueScape [DigitalFlux Entertainment] (Win32) - all versions;
read/write; commercial. (This is a "realtime terrain-creation" plugin
for trueSpace 4 or later [see below] that "allows you to
interactively sculpt terrains by drawing directly on the interface of
the tsx." PNG and other image formats may be imported and exported as
height maps.)

trueSpace [Caligari]
(Win32) - version 4.0 and later; read/write; commercial.
(This is a 3D modeler/renderer with support for radiosity, NURBS, VRML
1.0 import and VRML 2.0 export, etc.; PNG support is apparently limited
to textures and may not include alpha transparency.)

Visual Sun Chart [3-D
Software] (Windows 2k/XP) - all versions? write-only; uses
Victor Image Processing Library and
zlib; commercial. (This is "solar geometry software," a modelling tool to visualize shading from trees or buildings at various times of
day or of the year. It can export rendered images in PNG format.)

World Construction Set [3D Nature] (Win32, Mac OS) - version 6.0 and later;
read-only? commercial. (This is a 3D landscape modeling tool. VRML
and 3DSMax export support is available via a separate Scene Express add-on,
which also includes the NatureView Express standalone 3D viewer.)

WorldView [Intervista /
Platinum Technology /
Computer Associates] (Win32,
Mac OS) - version 2.0 and later; read-only; alpha support;
freeware. (This is a VRML browser/plug-in. See the VRML browsers page for details. WorldView was
developed by Intervista, which was acquired by Platinum in mid-1998,
which in turn was acquired by Computer Associates in early 1999.
MSVRML is a slightly modified version of WorldView distributed
with some Windows 98 machines.
This product is no longer under development.)

Xara3D [Xara]
(Win32) - version 2.0 and later; write-only? full alpha
support; commercial. (This is a `slimware' app for creating 3D text
images. It may also support reading PNGs as textures.)